KUCHING: Sarawak’s desire for devolution of power in critical areas of education has been agreed in principle by the federal government.
The State Ministry of Education, Innovation, and Talent Development (MEITD) said it was agreed that for matters which are operational and administrative in nature, both the Ministry of Education (MOE) and MEITD will meet to refine the details.
“MoE director-general Datuk Pkharuddin Ghazali was tasked with initiating a discussion on legal matters regarding the devolution of authority for education, involving the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Sarawak State Attorney General’s Chambers,” it said in a press release.
Earlier, the delegation from MEITD led by its Minister Datuk Seri Roland Sagah Wee Inn held a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof and top officials from the various federal ministries and departments, including the MoE, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Education Services Commission (SPP), Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU) of Prime Minister’s Department and Attorney General Chambers in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 26.
The visit was made as a follow up to the previous meeting on Devolution of Education to Sarawak in August.
During the meeting, Fadillah also instructed for an immediate committee to be set up between MoE and MEITD to share data on education in Sarawak, particularly on student drop-out and student achievements so that MEITD and the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) Sarawak can assess the effectiveness of the various state-initiated intervention programmes, as well as to assist MoE.
In addition, the meeting also discussed the issue of shortage of more than 3,000 teachers in Sarawak.
Fadillah instructed SPP and MoE to urgently look into the matter and to propose solutions, including allowing interim teachers to be absorbed into the teaching profession.
He also requested all parties to submit their detailed reports on the actions agreed within one month for submission to the main committee for Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Meanwhile, among those present were Deputy Minister of Education and Innovation Datuk Dr Annuar Rapa’ee and Deputy Minister of Talent Development Datuk Francis Harden Hollis, MEITD permanent secretary Datuk Azmi Haji Bujang and Sarawak Attorney General Datuk Saferi Ali.
